Gemma Parris, Design Sourcing Manager of Paperchase was a very welcome visitor to CoL&CPS. She gave a succinct and interesting presentation, with a brief history of Paperchase and her own position, plus examples of photographic cards which had been recently used by Paperchase. She described the process of identifying the original work, usually choosing from Getty Images, negotiating appropriate licences and then using the design and analysing sales figures to see what worked and what didn't. It was a fascinating insight into how the greetings card industry works and how sales drive the design briefs; we are all looking for penguins on bikes with cupcakes and silly hats to photograph, combining all currently popular themes.After the break, Gemma looked through some of the images entered into the greetings card competition held in September and commented on whether she thought they would be commercially viable. She particularly liked this cow portrait from Bill Gilliam and was very encouraging to several other photographers. She also suggested members might like to enter the Paperchase Christmas Card Competition: